As the Prime Minister is
expected to visit Sikkim in January 2016, it is important for us to realize that
Sikkim and Darjeeling together share nearly 70 percent of the Tista Basin area, one of the most contested basins geopolitically.
Tista Basin is also one of the degraded basins of the World due to human
overuse. More
importantly, Bangladesh has been unhappy with India given the fact that India appropriates most of the basin water much before it
enters Bangladesh, a
lower riparian member of the Basin.
Transboundary Tista River
flows the Eastern Himalayan
landscape and is the fourth major river after the Ganges, Brahmaputra and
Meghna in the Eastern South Asian region. It flows the entire length of Sikkim and carves out some of the profuse and
verdant Himalayan temperate and tropical river valleys. As it flows down, the river forms border between Sikkim and West Bengal. It
flows about 172 km in the hilly region of Sikkim and Darjeeling (India). The river crisscrosses for about 98 km in the
plains of West Bengal (India) and another 134 km in Bangladesh before joining
Brahmaputra in Bangladesh. As it traverses down, Tista receives water from a
large number of tributaries
on either side of its course forming a complex and dynamic river basin and a
unique eco-region often referred to as ‘Tista Eco-region’.
Regional Significance
Tista Basin forms a part of
the larger Brahmaputra Basin in the Eastern Himalaya. The river drains a total
geographical area of about 12159 km². Around 2004 km2 of the basin (about 17 percent) area lies in Bangladesh with the
rest being in India. The Eastern
Himalaya is considered as an important global ‘biodiversity hotspot’. The
region besides being
source of varied forms of natural/bio-resources also acts as a global ecological sink.
The basin currently is home to more than 30 million
souls representing several social groups in
Sikkim, northern West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh. Starting from the Lepcha Tribe,
Ethnic Bhutias and the Ethnic Nepalis in Sikkim-Darjeeling Himalaya to the
agrarian communities of North Bengal and Bangladesh, the region is the source
of livelihood for several socio-cultural
groups. Moreover, the basin has been source of etho-cultural and ethno-religious basis for many social
groups in Darjeeling-Sikkim region since historic
past.
Further, Tista is the only source of water to the
agricultural crops of the thirsty Northern Bengal and North Western
Bangladesh. Besides, other associated livelihood options
including rafting, sand/stone mining and fishing to name only few have thrived
across the basin since long. Tista basin, therefore, provides significant human
and environmental security to the region and its geography milieu.
Water Exploitations across
the Basin
As an
international river, there have been serious issues on table with regard to the overall management
in general and sharing of its water between
India and Bangladesh in particular. Besides several existing and proposed mega hydro-dams along with numerous tunnels in the Sikkim-Darjeeling catchment, the
Government of West Bengal has diverted almost entire Tista Water via artificial
canals at Tista (Gajoldoba) Barrage
in Jalpaiguri to
irrigate its thirsty North Bengal leaving little or no water for Bangladesh.
India constructed the Gajoldoba Barrage in 1980s and started diverting its water for irrigation and
transfer to the Mahananda River. India's irrigation plan with the Tista water is massive, to cover about 9.22 lakhs hectares of land in Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur
and Malda districts. Bangladesh completed the Tista Barrage in 1990s to
supply water to about 6.32 lakhs hectares of its thirsty agricultural land in Niphamari, Rangpur, Dinajpur,
Jaipurhat, Gaibandha and Bogra districts.
Overview of Hydro Power /
Multipurpose Projects in the Tista Basin
|
Catchment
|
Projects
|
Remarks
|
|
|
Sikkim
|
·
Around 20 Mega Hydro
Power Projects
·
More than 20 Mini and Micro Hydro Projects
|
Three-mega projects commissioned. Others under various stages of construction
|
|
|
West Bengal
|
Darjeeling
|
·
Three Mega hydro Projects
·
Four more mega hydro
projects proposed in July 2015
|
One project commissioned. One expected to be commissioned in early
2016
|
|
Jalpaiguri
|
·
Tista Barrage project,
Gajoldoba (Multipurpose)
|
Project work started in 1976, yet to be fully
completed (partially completed)
|
|
|
Bangladesh
|
·
Tista Barrage Project, Duani, Lalmonirhat (Multipurpose)
|
Project work started in 1979 completed in 1998
|
|
Declining Water Flow in the Basin
Ironically, experts are still unclear about the quantity of water the Tista River carries
due to official secrecy. In India, data of
international rivers are not accessible to the public and this limits water related research and water resource planning. Lack of river
flow data also causes conflicts and unjustified claims by different parties.
Due to lack of any data about river flows in upstream parts of rivers (like the Tista), it is impossible
for downstream communities to ignore
their claims or verify them.
One study points out that the peak discharge of Tista within Sikkim came down from 5000 cumec in 1972 to approximately 2200 cumec in 1998. Further, peak discharge at
Coronation Bridge has come down from 5200 cumec in 1972 to approximately
3500 cumec during the same
period. NHPC (2002)
noted that the
maximum observed discharge at Tista Bazar is 3650 cumec while the minimum
discharge is recorded at 86 cumec. Further,
Rudra (2003) pointed
out that the mean annual discharge of the Tista at Anderson Bridge is about 580 cumec and it declines to 90 cumec in the lean months.
According to Central Water Commission (CWC), water
flow in the Tista is already very low when it enters West Bengal from Sikkim due to construction of a series of hydroelectric projects in the upstream state and there are a few such projects in the West Bengal stretch of the river as well before the river flows down from the Himalaya to the plains.
Haque (2011) reported that the Tista River had an average historical flow of 7929 cumec maximum and 283 cumec minimum at Dalia (Bangladesh),
upstream of the Tista Barrage in Bangladesh. He points out that, due to increasing withdrawal in the upstream (India), this flow has come down to about
1,000 cusec (28 cumec) and to even 500 cusec (14 cumec) during droughts. In addition, the Joint River Commission (JRC) in
its last meet held in Dhaka displayed concerns over receiving only 6.5 per cent
of the Tista water in
Bangladesh which it said was the ‘lowest ever’.
Tista Water Sharing Concerns of Bangladesh
Bangladesh alleges that India is drawing water from the
river unilaterally that has resulted in a grave deficit of the water levels and
led to the drying up of the northern districts. As a lower riparian country of the basin,
Bangladesh has been regularly voicing its concern for the equitable sharing of
the transboundary Tista River for long. But it is still to be
achieved despite several meetings between Bangladesh and Indian governments. Since 1972 Bangladesh has wanted a 50 per cent share of Tista river water. Tista is one of the 54 rivers on the India-Bangladesh border out of which
only Ganga has a water-sharing agreement. The sharing of water on other important rivers
including Tista has been under discussion for quite some time.
Given the number of hydropower dams and other forms of development planned upstream farmers down streams are not sure
how long they will continue to get water when they need it. A recent Action Aid (2013) study conducted on 1140 families
living in two unions of Lalmonirhat's Sadar upazila and two other unions of
Kurigram's Ulipur upazila of Bangladesh highlights the following:
·
A total of 35 percent of the people dependent
on Tista River lost their
ancestral profession as fisherman, boatman and farmer in last two decades
because of low flow of water in the river.
·
At least 25 percent people of both the riverbanks have
become day labourers.
·
At least 42 percent people had to relocate their homesteads for 10 times due to
riverbank erosion, losing of professions and for other reasons.
The study is about the
impacts of Tista on the people living
near its banks, their lifestyle, professions and culture. It brings out the
life and living of people dependent on the
river. In this context, we need to
be heedful that any displacement of people within Bangladesh has the potential
of creating newer conflicts between Bangladesh and India as well as converting
some displaced into
environmental refugees.
In the light of the current unscientific water
management in the Upper Tista Catchment, Haque (2011) suggests that Bangladesh should demand the following:
·
Stopping of dam building in Sikkim that obstruct lean period flows in the Tista tributaries. 'Low Flow' hydroelectricity dams also obstruct the lean
period flows.
·
No linking or release should be allowed to the
Mahananda/Mechi River to the west or to the Jaldhaka River to the east.
These links/releases lead to inter-basin water transfer.
·
The command area in the Indian Tista Irrigation Project (Gajoldoba) must be reduced to a realistic size. A too large
area shall end up with major conveyance loss and failure.
Regional Human Security Concerns
Such a glaring decline in the basin water particularly in the lower catchment (Bangladesh) has resulted in large-scale protests against India across the spaces of Bangladesh including Dhaka. Further, in the absence of reliable data and official
agreement, technical issues regarding the quantity, division and share of the
waters has become the bone of contention between India and Bangladesh.
We need to understand that upstream water usage
determines downstream options in water management and therefore sets the stage either for conflict or cooperation. In this
regard, experts often project that
the next 10-15 years shall witness depressing intra and inter-State water
disputes if policy makers both in India and Bangladesh do not come up with viable solutions for
the sustainable management and sharing of Tista Water.
Reportedly, in July 2015, excess unannounced water was
released from hydro project dams of Sikkim causing flash floods in villages
located on both banks of the Tista downstream in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts of West
Bengal. Considering this problem, the chief minister of West Bengal advised the north Bengal development minister to
visit Sikkim and apprise the chief minister of Sikkim on the matter so that
such release of water
can be regulated. The West Bengal government is expecting to develop a
communication mechanism so that it is informed about such discharge of water.
This surely is a pointer to the potential future intra-state disputes in the region!
There is, therefore, an urgent need to re-look India’s local/regional
water management/diplomacy strategy and
neighbourhood policy.
However, both India and Bangladesh are yet to ratify the UN Water Course Convention, 1987 that talks about the need for resolution by adopting equitable,
non-discriminatory guiding principles for sharing of international water resources. The convention also urges all riparian States to cooperate on the
basis of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, mutual benefit and good faith in order
to attain optimal utilisation of an international watercourse.
Vimal Khawas
teaches in the Department of Geography, Sikkim University.
This essay is part of
research uptake activities of the larger
research work being conducted under project ‘Hydropower development in
the context of climate change: Exploring conflicts and fostering cooperation
across scales and boundaries in the Eastern Himalayas’ funded by Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and DFID (Department for
International Development), United Kingdom. Note: Published in Sikkim Express, December 17, 2015
